Darkness
.I had a dream, which was not all a dream
The bright sun was extinguished, and the stars
,Did wander darkling in the eternal space
Rayless, and pathless, and the icy earth
;Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air
,Morn came and went—and came, and brought no day
And men forgot their passions in the dread
Of this their desolation; and all hearts
;Were chilled into a selfish prayer for light
,And they did live by watchfires—and the thrones
,The palaces of crowned kings—the huts
,The habitations of all things which dwel
,Were burnt for beacons; cities were consumed
And men were gathered round their blazing homes
;To look once more into each other's face
Happy were those which dwelt within the eye
;Of the volcanoes, and their mountain-torch
;A fearful hope was all the world contained
Forests were set on fire—but hour by hour
They fell and faded—and the crackling trunks
.Extinguished with a crash—and all was black
The brows of men by the despairing light
Wore an unearthly aspect, as by fits
The flashes fell upon them: some lay down
And hid their eyes and wept; and some did rest
;Their chins upon their clenched hands, and smiled
And others hurried to and fro, and fed
Their funeral piles with fuel, and looked up
,With mad disquietude on the dull sky
The pall of a past world; and then again
,With curses cast them down upon the dust
,And gnashed their teeth and howled; the wild birds shrieked
,And, terrified, did flutter on the ground
And flap their useless wings; the wildest brutes
Came tame and tremulous; and vipers crawled
,And twined themselves among the multitude
;Hissing, but stingless—they were slain for food
,And War, which for a moment was no more
Did glut himself again;—a meal was bought
With blood, and each sate sullenly apart
;Gorging himself in gloom: no love was left
,All earth was but one thought—and that was death
Immediate and inglorious; and the pang
Of famine fed upon all entrails—men
;Died, and their bones were tombless as their flesh
,The meagre by the meagre were devoured
,Even dogs assailed their masters, all save one
,And he was faithful to a corse, and kept
,The birds and beasts and famished men at bay
Till hunger clung them, or the drooping dead
,Lured their lank jaws; himself sought out no food
,But with a piteous and perpetual moan
And a quick desolate cry, licking the hand
.Which answered not with a caress—he died
The crowd was famished by degrees; but two
,Of an enormous city did survive
And they were enemies: they met beside
The dying embers of an altar-place
Where had been heaped a mass of holy things
,For an unholy usage: they raked up
And shivering scraped with their cold skeleton hands
The feeble ashes, and their feeble breath
Blew for a little life, and made a flame
Which was a mockery; then they lifted up
Their eyes as it grew lighter, and beheld
— Each other's aspects—saw, and shrieked, and died
,Even of their mutual hideousness they died
Unknowing who he was upon whose brow
,Famine had written Fiend. The world was void
,The populous and the powerful was a lump
—Seasonless, herbless, treeless, manless, lifeless
.A lump of death—a chaos of hard clay
,The rivers, lakes, and ocean all stood still
;And nothing stirred within their silent depths
,Ships sailorless lay rotting on the sea
And their masts fell down piecemeal; as they dropped
— They slept on the abyss without a surge
,The waves were dead; the tides were in their grave
;The Moon, their mistress, had expired before
,The winds were withered in the stagnant air
And the clouds perished! Darkness had no need
!Of aid from them — She was the Universe
by Lord Byron
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